Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to see you again.

One of the primary roles of the United Nations is to mobilize action against the pervasive violations of human rights that take place in every part of our world. The fight against racism has been a core part of that mandate since the Organization’s founding. And it is the evil of racism that I want you, as members of the media, to stress to your audiences.

Some people point to great strides that the world has made recently as evidence that racism is going away. But I am here to tell you that we still have to do much more. In fact, despite decades of advocacy, and despite the elaboration of a far-reaching legal framework, racism is something that we’re still living with. Despite the efforts of many United Nations human rights bodies, and despite ample evidence of racism’s terrible toll, millions upon millions of people continue to fall victim.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to take a few moments to tell you about something that seems especially sad to me right now. In the world that we are living in today, we have children that are growing up thinking that they are inferior simply because of the colour of their skin or the shape of their features.

And yet, it is not their stories that are being brought to the forefront now. In this regard, I deplore the use of this august platform by the Iranian President to accuse, divide and even incite. This is the opposite of what this Conference seeks to achieve.

This makes it significantly more difficult to build constructive solutions to the very real problem of racism.

It is deeply regrettable that my plea to look to the future of unity was not heeded by the Iranian President. At my earlier meeting this morning with him, I stressed the importance of the Conference to galvanize the will of the international community toward the common cause of the fight against racism.

We must all turn away from such a message in both form and substance.

We must join hands and work together to achieve a constructive, substantive agenda to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

It has been painful to see divisiveness where we should have had unity and a common sense of resolve. Racism is truly a global issue, and we need it to be discussed at a global level, however sensitive and difficult that may be.

I always believed it is far better being inside the room, making one’s case, than standing aside and depriving others of additional perspectives and approaches. That is what the United Nations is all about – people coming together from all walks of life to engage in dialogue and find common ground so that all members of our global community can live in peace and dignity. And that is why I am here today.

I appeal to all to see this as the beginning of a process. It is not an end. Obviously, we have much work to do. We need to build on the progress we have made and grow beyond the divisions that prevent us from moving ahead.

I will now give the floor to High Commissioner Navi Pillay and I will be very happy to answer your questions afterwards. Thank you.